At Fairy Garden Days in Providence, children invited to spread their wings

Donita Naylor Journal Staff Writer donita22

Saturday

Apr 15, 2017 at 5:21 PMApr 15, 2017 at 7:27 PM

PROVIDENCE — About 1,000 people, some wearing fairy wings from a discount store, strolled or were strollered through the greenhouses in Roger Williams Park for the opening of the fifth annual Fairy Garden Days.

For the next two weeks, the Botanical Center's greenhouses have become exotic forests where magical houses have been built to appeal to fairies. At least 120 fairy-size homes and a few boats (including the Providence-to-Newport Fairy Ferry) are tucked in among the specimen plants, flowers, cacti, bromeliads and even the carnivorous plants that trap bugs — and fairies, if they're not careful.

About 90 volunteers, known as architects, met monthly to build houses and share the pine cones, feathers, shells, nut shells, acorn caps, dried flowers and moss they had gathered.

Linda Hardgrove, a master gardener from North Kingstown, said much of the birch bark, in pieces big enough to serve as frames for fairy houses, was shed from trees right in the park.

Maggie Hardy, 6, who has been coming to see the fairy houses since she was 3, saw Saturday's installment of the daily ladybug release but spent most of her time on the scavenger hunt, stamping her list with the stamp and ink pad provided for each item. She and her brother, Geddy, 4, came with their parents, Erica and George Hardy, of Providence, and their former neighbor, Mary Motte, 55, of Cranston, and Motte's son and nephew, both 26.

Geddy climbed onto a garden sculpture and asked for someone to take a video. "Giddyup," he ordered the statue of a wildcat. He later decided it was a dragon.

Fiber art adds color this year. Sondra Stone of Brooklyn, Connecticut, who homeschools her six children and served as organizer of the architects, asked her friend, Laura Taylor, 38, of Danielson, Connecticut, who also has six children who she teaches at home, to be the "fiber goddess." Taylor's troops provided knitted garlands, weavings, felted wool, streamers, and salvaged crocheted granny squares that wrap the trunk of one giant beech tree.

Fairy Garden Days is at the Botanical Center through April 30 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Mondays. Admission is $7 for ages 13-64, $4 for ages 6-12 and 65+ or with a military ID, and free for children younger than 6.

The center is on Floral Avenue, across Cladrash's Avenue from the Providence police horse barn. It is accessed from Broad Street by taking Montgomery Avenue to the traffic circle and going halfway around to Cladrash’s Avenue.

— dnaylor@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7411

On Twitter: @donita22

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